Project Update 8/12

Hello, here’s a much needed update on my first game demo, Come on Inn: First Stay. When I first announced the project, I gave a tentative release period of fall. It’s August now, and I’m sure you may have guessed that it isn’t ready. Indeed, it is far from ready.

There are a few major factors behind the delay that range from personal problems to lack of time management to just lack of time in general. But! The project has not died! In fact, it’s been evolving instead. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been researching and learning about game development, and I’ve learned so much that it’s changed many of my original thoughts about games and how I play them.

When the concept for Come on Inn: First Stay was created and an initial project outline made up, the project was a simple, extremely short visual novel made in Ren’py, a visual novel software. This demo version of CoI will still be more like a visual novel than a fully involved game; my programming skills just aren’t at the level needed for what I have in mind for the full game. However, I’ve spent a lot of time since the project announcement learning what it is I want CoI:FS to represent in terms of the type of games I want to make in the future. It is still a work-in-progress, but things are solidifying and my overall goal for the project is taking shape.

I do not have a revised release period for CoI:FS; when the writing phase is done, I will have one because I’ll be able to analyze how many assets I need and the amount of work I’ll need to do. For now, I want to be fairly transparent about the status of the project, because several months of silence until now is NOT how I want to run things! This timeline is not an accurate representation of what will actually happen (some back tracking will occur, as well as constant testing and fixing), but shows the core components of the First Stay game.

This timeline will be posted again when new phases are entered. Of course, these phases are simplified; there’s a lot more that needs doing and some areas will cross over. Also note that there is a Beta Access and Early access phase near the bottom! While I haven’t been working on CoI:FS, my Patreon has still been active, and I even just updated the reward tiers for donation amounts.

$5 donations will grant Early Access of CoI:FS. $10 donations will grant Beta Access, where you’ll get to help play test the game and help me find bugs and errors. There are, of course, other bonuses for the donations, and other donation amounts available. You can learn more at my Patreon page!

Thank you everyone for your patience. I apologize for this status update that was owed several months ago, and I hope to be more diligent in staying active on social media.

Come on Inn

Play as an innkeeper who needs to make a good first impression on three cute, new guests!